PROVIDENCE – The Mount Saint Charles Academy softball team’s history in championship games hadn’t been very kind to the Mounties, and unfortunately for them, they were unable to reverse their fortunes on Tuesday night in their Division II title game against Barrington High at Rhode Island College.

Paige Concannon struck out 10 batters to pitch a four-hitter, and her catcher, Sydney Parkhurst, delivered a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the sixth inning to lift the Eagles to a 3-2 victory and their first D-II title since 2007.

As for the Mounties, who were making their debut in D-II this season, it was the fifth time in the team’s history that they played in the finals – Mount reached the state finals in 1989, 2005, 2010, and 2011 – and just came up short. Mount lost three of those games by one run and the 2005 contest by two runs.

“The girls played hard,” said Mount head coach Cliff Matthews. “Is it disappointing? Sure, it’s always disappointing when you don’t achieve your goal, but am I upset? No, we had a good run. This was a very good group, and my seniors did not quit on me. They played right until the very last out.”

Both teams produced runs in the first inning – Mount on Skylar O’Connell’s line single to center field and Barrington on Madelyn Cox’s two-out bloop single to center – and after the Mounties took a 2-1 lead in the third on another RBI single by O’Connell, the Eagles tied the contest again in the fifth on a two-out, run-scoring single to left by Concannon.

In the sixth, the Mounties had a golden opportunity to take the lead when Shea Kelliher led off with a triple down the right-field line. One out later, she tried to race home on a squeeze bunt by Taylor Newcomb, but Newcomb’s bunt went right to Concannon, who quickly flipped the ball to catcher Sydney Parkhurst, and she tagged out the sliding Kelliher.

“They defended the squeeze,” said Matthews. “Two feet either way and that run scores, and that changes the whole complexion of the game.”

After Parkhurst drove in the deciding run in the bottom of the inning with a base hit to right-center, the Mounties did their best to knot the score in the seventh, and they got some help from the Eagles’ third and fourth errors of the game.

With one out, D’Abrosca reached base on an infield error, and when she promptly stole second base, the throw there scooted into the outfield, and D’Abrosca was able to hustle to third. But she was stranded there, as Concannon got the last two outs on a strikeout and a flyout to center.

The Mounties fell into the losers’ bracket last Friday by suffering a 4-0 loss to the Eagles, but came back to reach the finals by defeating Johnston on Saturday, 10-8. They end their season with a 17-5 record that includes their 3-2 mark in the playoffs.